A man believed to be an Afghan soldier opened fire at an Afghan military academy in Kabul on Tuesday, killing a U.S. general and wounding up to 15 others, including a German general and eight Americans, U.S. and coalition officials said.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, declined to provide the officer’s name Tuesday afternoon, but other officials identified him as Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, deputy commanding general of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan in Kabul. He is the highest-ranking U.S. service member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

U.S. officials said five of the eight wounded Americans are in serious condition; a number of British soldiers and three Afghan troops, including two generals, reportedly were wounded.

An official at the German Embassy in Washington, who confirmed the wounding of the German brigadier general in the attack, would not say whether the shooter was killed by coalition troops or Afghans.

“It’s a terrible day. It’s a terrible tragedy,” said Kirby, adding that coalition officials have no reason to believe that the shooter was not a member of the Afghan National Security Forces.

Also Tuesday, in eastern Paktia province, an Afghan police guard exchanged fire with NATO troops near the governor’s office, provincial police said, and was killed.

It wasn’t clear if the two incidents were linked, and police said they were investigating.

The Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, issued a written statement Tuesday evening expressing condolences to Greene’s family and the families of the others injured in the attack.

A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi and other Afghan officials described the attacker as a “terrorist dressed in an Afghan army uniform,” who opened fire on a delegation of military visitors.

Sources at the Afghan Defense Ministry said the attacker was a member of the Afghan National Army for the past two years and was from southeastern Afghanistan. They did not identify him. They said he used a light assault rifle to fire on the foreign military delegation before he was fatally shot by Afghan personnel.

President Barack Obama received a briefing on the attack from ISAF commander Gen. Joseph Dunford, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. He reiterated that the administration believes that while Afghanistan remains a “dangerous” place, its security needs must be met by the Afghan government.

The shooting occurred as plans for the future presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, after the final withdrawal of combat forces in December, remained in limbo. Delays continued in the slow process of auditing votes from the June runoff between presidential candidates Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, who have accused each other’s campaigns of fraud.

Although Obama has said that 9,800 U.S. troops will remain for training and counterterrorism missions, their presence requires the new Afghan president to sign a bilateral security agreement with the United States.

So-called insider attacks have been a core concern of coalition troops in Afghanistan for years. As of June 24, there had been 87 since 2008, killing 142 coalition troops and wounding 165, according to a tally kept by the Long War Journal.

Motives for the attacks have varied. In some cases, insurgents have infiltrated the Afghan military and police. In others, Afghan troops have attacked the coalition troops training them after feeling personally offended, military officials have said.

The worst year for insider attacks in Afghanistan was 2012, when 44 attacks killed 61 coalition troops, according to the Long War Journal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene

Age: 55

Home: Falls Church, Va.

Assignment: Deputy commanding general for the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan

Background: Commissioned as an engineer officer, 1980; previously deputy for acquisition and systems management for the assistant to the secretary of the Army

Military awards: Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal

Education: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; master’s in strategic studies, U.S. Army War College; doctorate, University of Southern California

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